Sir Alex Ferguson leads the demand for overhaul of the academy set up

Ferguson delivered a thinly-veiled critique of the English set-upMarc Aspland for The Times

Thirty-six hours after seeing his team taken apart by Barcelona, Sir Alex Ferguson had no intention of making excuses for Manchester United’s emphatic defeat in the Champions League final on Saturday.

And yet as Ferguson expressed a longing for the day when the Spanish culture of continual coaching was replicated on these shores, the United manager struck a nerve that resonated far beyond the confines of Old Trafford and cut to the root of the problem with the English game.

“People have to understand the mechanics of the industry,” he said. “We are only allowed to coach youngsters for an hour and a half, they [Barcelona] can coach every hour of the day if they want to. That’s the great advantage they’ve got and they…